How An Entire Year Could Go By With No Fat Loss

QUESTION: Dear Tom: I've been going to the gym for the past year now, but I have only lost 2 pounds. I eat about 1800 calories a day and I do 3 cardio and 3 weight training sessions a week. I am 5 feet 5 inches and 128 lbs. I would like to be at 120 lbs. To lose 8 more lbs isn't a lot to ask, but I'm really frustrated. I've been VERY persistent, and I rarely cheat except once each weekend, but at this rate, it will take me another 4 years for me to reach my goal! Please help!

ANSWER: Don't worry, it won't take another 4 years! In fact, you can reach your target wt. within the next month if you start getting feedback, charting results and making some strategic changes to your program.

First, it's important that you understand how a year could go by with almost no progress.

Have you been doing the same nutrition, same calories, same cardio and same workout for the entire past year with no changes? If so, then you shouldn't be suprised if you've continued to get the SAME results (very little).

If you do more of the same, you usually get more of the same.

Caloric intake, for example is not something you calculate once and then never pay attention to again. Calories have to be calculated and customized for each individual in the beginning and then adjusted continuously in "real time" during the course of a fat loss program, based on actual results.

Just because you start at 1800 doesn't mean your caloric intake should stay there. Calories may need to be increased or decreased depending on whether your goals, your body weight and your activity levels change and based on your weekly progress (or lack of).

Which brings me to another point. I am a huge fan of using progress charts. There is a saying in business management and sports coaching:

"What gets measured gets done."

When you start "keeping score" and tracking performance right down to the numbers, it's almost miraculous how this awareness of how you're doing translates into improved results.

When you track your body composition results every week, if a week or two goes by with no results, then you don't continue with more of what got you no results, you change some variable in your program immediately!

An old Turkish proverb that says,

"No matter how far you've traveled down the wrong road, always turn back!"

Of course, you don't have to throw out your entire program, you can simply "tweak" ONE or maybe two variables within the same program.

Also, when you measure, track and analyze muscle versus fat (body composition), instead of just scale weight, you might even discover you've gained some lean body mass and this offsets the drop on the scale (which means it's possible you made more progress than you thought).

Now, back to the calories. To break a plateau, you can take a reduction in calories, or an increase in activity, either of which will create a deficit if you are currently in energy balance, or increase your existing caloric deficit.

1800 calories may not provide a large enough deficit for some women, and in fact, the majority of women your height, weight and activity level usually are losing fat safely and successfully on 1500-1600 calories per day. (for men about 2200-2500 calories, avg.)

At the end of the day, fat loss boils down to calories in versus calories out, so if you plateau, you may need a simple calorie reduction, provided you don't restrict too low for too long (which tends to trigger your body's "starvation response.")

As for your cardio program, 3 days a week of cardio works for many people, but usually, I would consider three weekly cardio sesssions a maintenenance workout or at best a starting point for beginners,NOT a "maximum fat loss" program.

Example: this week, you could increase your cardio from 3 sessions to 4 sessions. If you combine the decrease in food intake with an increase in calories burned through activity, that will almost certainly get you burning fat again.

If it does, then stay with 4 days a week of cardio. If not, the next week go up to 5 days a week. Repeat this simple "feedback loop" process as many times and for as long as necessary.

Also remember that more (often) is not always better. You can also increase the intensity and get more calories burned in same amount of time. This feedback loop process can be used to make decisions about your training intensity, duration and type, as well as frequency.

Whichever strategy you choose to break the plateau, remember Albert Einstein's definition of insanity:

"Insanity is to keep doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result."

Although this seems like common sense to some people, what happened to you is really quite common because it does appear that you're doing everything you're "supposed to be doing" with perfectly good intentions.

You have have all the key elements there: You're exercising (weights and cardio). You're watching your nutrition, and you've been disciplined and consistent in following it.

The trouble with many popular programs – even good ones – is that they are too dogmatic. Their entire program may revolve around "X" number of calories, "X" days per week of cardio and "X" days a week of weights….

And you're not allowed to "tamper" with that "holy grail" formula.

I can understand the rationale for a simple diet and exercise prescription for a beginner in order to not confuse them with too many choices, but what if it doesnt work after a month, three months, six months, A WHOLE YEAR? What if there are no options, what then?

In NLP, there's a principle, (borrowed from cybernetics), called The Law of Requisite Variety, which says,

"The person with the most choices and the most flexibility is the person with the most power and the greatest chance for success."

You need to know what to do when you're not getting results… you need options and choices for breaking plateaus, and that's important because plateaus happen to everyone – including me.

Some people think that hitting a fat loss plateau means there's something wrong with them. But plateaus are natural and normal. In fact, you could look at it this way:

Hitting a plateau means your body is healthy and your body is functioning normally, because normal function of the body is to adapt effectively to stress, to protect you and to maintain homeostasis.

Exercise is a stress. Dieting is a stress. It's natural for your body to adapt to them. When you adapt, you must place a new "positive stress" onthe body if you want continued improvement.

If you want to learn more details about how to change your program to break plateaus and make continuous progress as fast as safely possible, then I recommend you take a look at Burn the Fat, Feed The Muscle (BFFM).

BFFM has flexibility, feedback and performance tracking built right into it. Chapter 4 in BFFM teaches the "BFFM feedback loop method", and shows you how to chart progress and adjust your diet and workouts on a weekly basis, to keep you making progress or get you back on track if your progress stalls out.

There is no reason to allow even a few weeks, let alone an entire year to go by without results. But you can't expect to get different results if you continue doing more of what's not working.

Keep after it! Be persistent – but also be flexible! <<< Watch This Amazing Video For More Information >>>

Source White Market

Guide to Cooking Oils

 

Cooking oils are a necessary ingredient in the preparation of many different kinds of foods. When sautéing or frying help keep the food from burning. When baking, oils help keep the food moist. Oils are also added to sauces and dressings. However, all cooking oils are not created equal. Some oils are best suited to particular types of cooking, and certain ones are healthier than others.

While there are literally hundreds of different oils from which to choose only about 15-20 of them are most commonly used in the modern kitchen. The more common cooking oils on the market today include: vegetable oil; canola oil, olive oil; butter; peanut oil; sesame oil; sunflower oil; and margarine. Like I say there are lots more but right now we'll just focus on the ones you're most likely to see sitting on the shelf at the grocery store.

The production of cooking oils stretches back more than 5,000 years. In ancient times, people began heating oily plant products until the plants exuded oil that they could collect and use. Olive oil was being produced in southern Europe as early as 3,000 B.C. and soy oil first appeared in Asia around 2,000 B.C. Other cultures—such as those in Latin America, North America, Africa and others used peanuts, sunflowers, palm kernels and even coconut to produce cooking oil.

Although the basic steps have remained the same for thousands of years, modern science has significantly improved the cooking oil production process. Some types of oils including olive, peanut and certain sunflower and coconut oils can be cold-pressed, meaning that they undergo minimal processing. These oils tend to be light and flavorful but not suitable for use in all cooking scenarios. For example, olive oil has a relatively low smoke point, meaning that it's not ideal for certain types of cooking such as frying foods.

Vegetable oils that can't be cold pressed are first cleaned and ground before being pressed in order to extract the oil from them. After extraction, the oil is refined and washed in a centrifuge and then washed again. After some further refining, it is filtered or distilled and then packaged for sale.

Butter is also frequently used as cooking oil. It is usually made from sweet cream and is salted. Butter produced on the farm uses the cream directly from whole milk. Today's commercially-produced butter is made by extracting small amounts of cream from whey, a by-product of cheese-making, using large centrifuges.

 Now let's talk about margarine and get that part of the discussion out of the way. Margarine is a butter substitute that has been around since the late 1800s. It is made from vegetable oils, animal fats or a mixture of both. Its manufacturing process involves the addition of hydrogen atoms to the fat molecules, making them more saturated and raising the point at which they melt. As a result, margarine remains a solid at room temperature. This process is known as "hydrogenation," and requires the presence of a metal catalyst and temperatures of about 500°F (260°C).

All cooking oils contain fats. But as you should already know by now, all fats are not the same. Some fats are healthier for our bodies than others. Margarine is far and away the worst oil on the list. Most of margarines are loaded with trans-fats (the really bad fats), along with lots of artificial ingredients so do yourself a favor and just avoid them. When you want to spread something on your bread or pancakes, you're far better off choosing butter.

While you certainly shouldn't be gnawing on a stick of butter every day, the occasional use of butter is actually a good thing. First, butter is a rich source of vitamins and minerals. It also contains fatty acids, which are used as an energy source and can help protect against certain diseases and conditions. And, in moderation, the cholesterol contained in butter is good for the body. The type of cholesterol found in butter helps maintain intestinal health.

Lastly, let's look at how the other cooking oils—vegetable oil; canola oil, olive oil; peanut oil; sesame oil; and sunflower oil—compare with one another.

•Vegetable oil: Most vegetable oils are 'good' fats that have been altered or hydrogenated. Remember hydrogenation from the margarine manufacturing process? This process increases the level of 'bad' fats found in vegetable oils. Some manufacturers try to offset the bad side of vegetable oil by claiming that they're high in Omega-6s, a polyunsaturated fat that is good for the body when balanced with Omega-3 fatty acids. But that's not the case with vegetable oils and it is certainly not the case with the American diet, where we typically eat 20-to-1 Omega-6 to Omega-3.

•Canola oil: This oil is generally has less than 7% saturated fat, high in monounsaturated fat and has a beneficial Omega-3 fatty acid profile. As such, it is endorsed by the American Dietetic Association and the American Heart Association has one of the healthier oil choices for cooking.

•Olive oil: Considered by many to be the 'king' of cooking oils, olive oil is available in a lot of different varieties. Many people consider this to be one of—if not the the—most healthy cooking oils around. It's got lots of monounsaturated fats, which have been linked to a lowered risk of coronary disease.

•Peanut oil: This oil is frequently used in Asian countries. Though it is higher in saturated fats than olive oil, it's also a good source of monounsaturated fats. Peanut oil can be flavorful so it's not suited for all dishes. Persons with peanut allergies need to stay away from peanut oil.

•Sesame oil: Sesame oil has a high proportion of Omega-6 fatty acids (41%) but it has no Omega-3s. And while it's low on saturated fat, (13 grams), it's also fairly low on monounsaturated fats (46 grams compared to 77 grams in olive oil).

•Sunflower oil: This cooking oil comes in pretty low on the saturated fat scale (only 11 grams compared to 14 in olive oil), it is not such a great source of monounsaturated fat (20 grams versus 73 grams in olive oil).

The last thing I want to touch on here is the Omega-6 to Omega-3 ratio I mentioned earlier. Research suggests that our bodies are hard-wired to function best with a one-to-one ratio of Omega-6 to Omega-3 fatty acids. But in today's Western diets very high ratios of Omega-6 to Omega-3 (up to 20 to 1) is the norm. This creates a host of health problems including cardiovascular disease and more. Lower ratios have been linked to prolonged healthy outcomes and reduced incidents of disease and illness.

So there you have some information about cooking oils that should help you to make an informed decision regarding which oil you'll be using next in the kitchen.

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Source White Market

Good Trans Fats vs. Bad Trans Fats

I'm going to talk about something today that most of you have probably never heard… that there is a distinction between good trans fats and bad trans fats. There is some evidence that the good trans fats can help you with fat loss, muscle building, and even cancer prevention, while the bad trans fats have been shown to cause heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and the general "blubbering" of your body.

 

I'm sure most of you have heard all of the ruckus in the news over the last few years about just how bad man-made trans fats are for your health. If you've been a reader of my newsletter and my Truth about Six Pack Abs e-book program, then you definitely know my opinion that these substances are some of the most evil food additives of all and are found in the vast majority of all processed foods and fast foods on the market today.

In my opinion, man-made trans fats are right up there with smoking in terms of their degree of danger to your health. After all, they are one of THE MAIN factors for the explosion of heart disease since approximately the 1950′s.

With all of the talk about trans fats in the news these days, I wanted to clarify some things, particularly regarding bad trans fats vs. good trans fats. If you've never heard of good trans fats before, let me explain in a bit.

The Bad Trans Fats

First, the bad trans fats I'm referring to are the man-made kind. These are represented by any artificially hydrogenated oils. The main culprits are margarine, shortening, and partially hydrogenated oils that are in most processed foods, junk foods, and deep fried foods.

These hydrogenated oils are highly processed using harsh chemical solvents like hexane (a component of gasoline), high heat, pressure, have a metal catalyst added, and are then deodorized and bleached. A small % of the solvent is allowed to remain in the finished oil. This has now become more of an industrial oil rather than a food oil, but somehow the FDA still allows the food manufacturers to put this crap in our food at huge quantities, even with the well documented health dangers.

These hydrogenated oils cause inflammation inside of your body, which signals the deposition of cholesterol as a healing agent on artery walls. Hence, hydrogenated oil = inflammation = clogged arteries. You can see why heart disease has exploded since this crap has been loaded into our food supply over the last 5 to 6 decades.

As time goes on, and science continues to unveil how deadly these oils really are, I feel that eventually they will be illegal and banned from use. The labeling laws were just the first step. In fact, certain countries around the world have already banned the use of hydrogenated oils in food manufacturing or at least set dates to phase them out for good.

However, keep in mind that as companies are starting to phase out the use of hydrogenated oils in processed foods, they are replacing them, in most instances, with highly refined polyunsaturated oils such as soybean oil, cottonseed oil, corn oil, etc, etc. These are still heavily processed oils using high heat, solvents, deodorizers, and bleaching agents. Even refined oils are known to produce inflammation in your body…a far cry from natural sources of healthy fats.

Don't be fooled by the new onslaught of foods claiming "trans fat free"… if they use heavily refined oils (even if they're non-hydrogenated), it's still pure evil for your body, and very inflammatory. 

Once again, for the best results, your best bet is avoiding highly processed foods altogether and choose whole, natural, minimally processed foods. Your body will thank you!

The Good Trans Fats

Ok, after having trash talked the man-made trans fats, let me clearly state that there is such a thing as healthy natural trans fats. Natural trans fats are created in the stomachs of ruminant animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, etc. and make their way into the fat stores of the animals.

Therefore, the milk fat and the fat within the meat of these animals can provide natural healthy trans fats (best in grass-fed organic versions only).

Natural trans fats in your diet have been thought to have some potential benefit to aid in both muscle building and fat loss efforts. However, keep in mind that the quantity of healthy trans fats in the meat and dairy of ruminant animals is greatly reduced by mass-production methods of farming and their grain and soy heavy diets. Meat and dairy from grass-fed, free-range animals always have much higher quantities of these beneficial fats.

One such natural trans fat that you may have heard of is called conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) and has been marketed by many weight loss companies. Keep in mind that these man-made CLA pills you see in the stores may not be the best way to get CLA in your diet. They are artificially made from plant oils in a manner similar to hydrogenation, instead of the natural process that happens in ruminant animals. Once again, man-made just doesn't compare to the benefits of natural sources.

Here's a great site I found that I use to order all of my healthy grass-fed beef and other free range meats.  The service is impeccable and they deliver right to your doorstep in a sealed cooler. It's worth it to know that you and your family are actually eating meat that's good for you instead of the normal grocery store junk.

Now that all of your labels should be listing grams of trans fat, keep in mind that if a quantity of trans fat is listed on a meat or dairy product, it is most likely the natural good trans fats that we've discussed here (*I only recommend grass-fed meat or dairy). Otherwise, if the quantity of trans fat is listed on any processed foods, it is most likely the dangerous unhealthy crap from artificially hydrogenated oils, so stay away!  

One more important note about food labels and trans fat listings… keep in mind that food manufacturers are allowed to label a food "trans fat free" if 1 serving size contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat.  So you may see some products with hydrogenated oils as one of their main ingredients, but if they make the serving size small enough so that it contains less than 0.5 grams of trans fat per serving, they can label it as trans fat free… now that's BS!  just another example of our broken system!

Watch This Amazing Video For More Information

Source White Market